Wimbledon: Paes-Bhupathi crash out in second round

London, June 25 (IANS) India’s top doubles pair Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi crashed out of the second round of Wimbledon tennis with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-7(1), 4-6 loss to Frenchman Arnaud Clement and Czech Lukas Dlouhy here Saturday.

The third-seeded Indians, champions here in 1999, failed to keep up the momentum after winning the first set. Though they did fight back in the third set to force a tie-break, Clement and Dlouhy, a former doubles partner of Paes, raised their game by several notches to move ahead.

Paes and Bhupathi got off to a false start in the fourth set by dropping their serve early and after that, all Clement and Dlouhy had to do was to keep the ball in play.

The “Indian Express” had rejoined forces early this year in a bid to complete a career Grand Slam at the Australian Open, the only trophy missing from their cabinet. They reached the final at Melbourne Park but were defeated by Mike and Bob Bryan.

They then made a second round exit in the French Open in May.

Their defeat leaves Somdev Devvarman as the only Indian in the men’s doubles. Somdev partnering Kei Nishikori of Japan plays sixth seeds Michael Llodra of France and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia.

India’s Rohan Bopanna and his Pakistan partner Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi were knocked out in the first round.